Positive news
amid pandemic
Update: Healthcare worker tests positive
Murphy – Last week began with Cherokee County’s first death as a result of complications from COVID-19, but it ended with the news that six people have recovered from the coronavirus.
The Cherokee County Health Department reported the recoveries in a release Friday. All six people were isolated until they fully recovered and had tests results showing they were no longer infected with the disease. The number includes both residents and non-residents.
“This is a sliver of positive news and further highlights the need within our community to be vigilant in staying at home and social distancing when necessary to go out in the public,” the release says.
Health Director David Badger said the recoveries are an example that most people will have mild symptoms and fully recover.
“It is certainly a positive for those who recovered, and it’s an important and encouraging sign,” he said.
Badger said while this is good news, it does not mean residents can let their guard down. He added that the coronavirus can still have “detrimental effects” on many individuals.
Local residents should continue to follow Gov. Roy Cooper’s Stay-at-Home Order except for essential work and needs, practice social distancing when out and use proper hand washing techniques. The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention also recently recommended people wear cloth face coverings, or masks, in settings where social distancing is difficult.
Badger said while cloth masks do little to nothing to protect the user, they do help keep the user from spreading droplets by coughing or sneezing to someone else. The effectiveness of masks also depends on proper handling.
“Just because you have a mask on doesn’t make you inherently safer,” he said.
Badger said the CDC recommendation to use cloth masks instead of medical-grade surgical or N-95 masks also acts as a deterrent for the community to use supplies the medical community needs.
The state is not reporting the recoveries, only reporting the number of North Carolina residents who have tested positive and the number of deaths in those who tested positive. As of Monday, the state had 2,870 cases.
Of those testing positive, 41 percent were ages 25-49, but 82 percent of the deaths were those ages 65 and older. The state’s report subtracts the deaths from the number of cases.
Cherokee County’s first death was a man in his 80s who passed away due to complications from the virus. He was the state’s ninth death overall. As of Monday, there were 33 people across the state who died after testing positive for COVID-19.
While Badger could not provide any more information about the local man who passed away due to privacy laws, the health department said in a release that the county’s first death is “an unfortunate reminder of the seriousness that surrounds COVID-19 and the potential impacts to those high-risk individuals.”
High-risk individuals include those ages 65 and older, according to the CDC.
Over the past week, the health department also announced three additional cases of residents testing positive for COVID-19, bringing the reported case total – including two non-residents and the death – to 12 since March 18. Since not all cases are tested, this number as well as ones from the state may not represent the actual number of people who have or have had COVID-19.
All three cases were related to previously reported cases. One was a household contact of an individual possibly exposed to the coronavirus at Harrah’s Cherokee Valley River Casino & Hotel, while the other two attended the same contra dance at John C. Campbell Folk School as the individual who was the first reported case in Cherokee County.
The household contact of a previously reported individual has been isolated since their contact was tested, and only left their home for medical care, the health department said Sunday. Their household contact’s test results were reported on March 29. The health department said it is still working to identify the source of the infection.
The two new cases linked to the folk school were reported on the evening of March 31. The tests for those cases were part of a collaborative effort between the folk school, Cherokee County Health Department, Clay County Health Department and Dogwood Health Trust to reduce the spread of the virus in the community.
Since he was on the mailing list the folk school used to find people who attended the dance, Dr. Brian Mitchell got involved. He said the folk school responded quickly once they learned someone who became ill a day or so after the dance on March 10 tested positive on March 18. The folk school already closed on March 13.
He responded by contacting Dogwood Health Trust, a non-profit working to to improve the health and well-being of western North Carolina. Mitchell knew the organization was working to get test kits to support local health departments.
“The trust wanted to do what it could to prevent the spread of the virus,” Mitchell said.
Within days, a testing site was set up in the folk school’s Festival Barn, where those exposed could get tested for free in a drive-through setting. Those administering the tests included Mitchell, two Cherokee County Health Department staff members, one Clay County Health Department staff member and two nurses from Buncombe County.
Mitchell said they tested 71 people in the barn on March 24 and four other people a short time later. The folk school said on March 21 that about 90 people attended the dance.
Both Mitchell and Badger were proud to see so many people in the community respond to testing.
“It’s encouraging that people are willing to be tested,” Badger said, adding that it’s important in reducing the potential spread of the virus in the community.
Mitchell said that not only were those tested helping themselves and their families, but they were willing to help the community.
“I consider them to be citizens in the best sense of the word,” he said.
All who were tested were quarantined until their test results returned.
“We’re hoping this was a containment effort that was successful,” Mitchell said.
Out of those tests, six people from Cherokee, Clay and Fannin (Ga.) counties tested positive. He said most of those people were showing no symptoms at all.
“Our testing revealed there are asymptomatic carriers,” Mitchell said. “Because we don’t have testing for everyone, we must assume everyone we meet is a potential carrier.”
He said so far, Erlanger Western Carolina Hospital has not been overburdened. From what he’s seen, county residents have responded well to social distancing.